Pubdate: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 1999 Associated Press Author: Anita Snow CASTRO PUTS HONOR OF PAN AM GAMES ON TRIAL IN UNUSUAL TWO-DAY HEARING HAVANA (AP) -- President Fidel Castro put the honor of the Pan American Games on trial Friday with hearings aimed at showing that Cuban athletes were framed for drug use and unjustly forced to give back their gold medals. "It was all a colossal lie, an infamous and shameful lie, a criminal plundering of merits won through denial, tenacity, consecration and sacrifice," the Cuban leader said during the first hearing, a three-hour appearance on live television Thursday night. Castro called for the unusual program, which included the presence of 14 foreign journalists and five Cuban journalists. No questions were allowed until the completion of the second half of the program Friday night. "More than a hearing, it will be a trial," Castro said earlier in the week. There was no immediate reaction from Pan Am officials or from the laboratory in Montreal, which conducted the urine tests that Castro claimed were doctored to falsely show that Cuban athletes were using drugs. On Thursday night, Castro, along with a leading sports official and a top sports doctor, said that multiple urine tests of two Cuban weightlifters conducted by Cuba and sent to three different laboratories in Europe all tested negative for the anabolic steroid Nandrolone. The tests were conducted four to five days after the athletes returned to Cuba from the Pan Am Games, Castro said. Steroids are injected into the body to increase strength and bulk and can remain in a person's system for months. Urine tests analyzed by a Canadian lab during the Pan Am Games at Winnipeg last month showed William Vargas, winner of the 136-pound class, and Rolando Delgado, the 152-pound gold medalist, tested positive for the drug. Both weightlifters were stripped of their gold medals. "In the 20 samples analyzed by three laboratories, there was not a single reported presence of Nandrolone or its traces, not a single athlete in our weightlifting team was using drugs," Castro said. Castro also defended high jump world record-holder Javier Sotomayor, saying that his being stripped of the gold at the Pan Am Games after testing positive for cocaine use was the result of a "dirty political war." He raised doubts about the way the urine tests for Sotomayor and other Cubans were conducted at the Games. The Cubans were required to drink water or other "refreshing drinks" before their tests and were given their tests in a room apart from athletes from other countries, Castro said. Cuban officials have suggested that someone slipped the cocaine into Sotomayor's food or drink before the test, which was given shortly after he won his fourth straight Pan Am gold medal. It would be "absurd" to believe that Sotomayor consumed cocaine before that feat, because the large quantity found in his system would surely have impeded his performance, Castro said. Cuban officials have become increasingly frustrated by what they believe is an orchestrated campaign by their enemies to discredit the communist country and its long respected sports program. During the Pan Am Games, they complained about Canadian news media, saying they joked about and encouraged Cuban athletes to defect. Last week in Houston, Cuban athletes and sports officials walked out on the International Amateur Boxing Association Championships following a disputed bout that initially gave a Russian fighter a victory over a Cuban. Four of the five judges who worked the disputed match were suspended Aug. 27 by the executive committee of the AIBA. - --- MAP posted-by: Thunder